An man posing as "Paul Kochadie" fooled over 400,000 followers on his Douyin account (TikTok's equivalent in China) by using artificial intelligence to pretend to be a Russian soldier on the Ukrainian frontline. This man, who sent "daily" updates about the war in Ukraine, was neither Russian nor a soldier, but instead a resident of Henan, China. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Russian aggression is aimed at Ukraine, not the so-called "collective West." And since this war has nothing to do with the West, the damage to the Ukrainian economy and the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure is solely Russia's responsibility, having launched an unprovoked, large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The international television company Al Jazeera denied the information that this story was created by its correspondents. A spokesperson for the TV company said that the video, as well as the information in it, is fake and was fabricated by a third party.
The U.S. committed about $78 billion in humanitarian, financial and military assistance to Ukraine from January 2022 to February 2023, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German-based research organization that tracks nations' support of Ukraine, reported.
The U.S. total included $47 billion in military aid. That figure ranked highest among all nations and 14th as a percentage of gross domestic product.
A Pew Research Center poll in June of U.S. adults age 18 and older found that 31% of respondents said the U.S. is providing the right amount of aid to Ukraine, 28% said too much and 16% said not enough.
The Pentagon did not say that it mistakenly sent Ukraine $6.2 billion in cash.
We rate the Facebook post False.
Ukrainian Ministry of Health assesses water quality in the reservoirs of Kherson, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions on a daily basis, and the epidemic situation is currently under control, with no outbreaks of infectious diseases in the affected areas. The narrative about the US biolabs is not confirmed either by specialized experts from different countries or by international organizations working to reduce the threat of proliferation of mass destruction weapons.
The document circulating online is fake. This is evidenced by the many errors in the so-called passport, in particular, the misspelled Hebrew name, surname, nationality and birth place of Olena Zelenska, as well as the validity period of the document.
A representative for Kennedy Jr. told Newsweek via email that "the candidate misspoke."
They added: "What he meant was that spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaled $8 trillion. He apologizes for the misstatement."
Whatever Kennedy Jr.'s intended message was, the lack of detail does appear to have caused some to believe that the U.S. has spent $8 trillion on Ukraine which is, quite clearly, not correct.
The website of the German media Stern has no articles about Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov falling
into a coma and being hospitalized in Germany. In addition, neither the
press center, nor the medical service of the Bundeswehr, nor the German
Defense Ministry, nor the Berlin police were able to provide any
information regarding the hospitalization of the head of Ukrainian
intelligence. According to Ukrainian authorities, Kyrylo Budanov is well
and performing at his job. In addition, the intelligence office published
several videos with the head of intelligence already after the missile
attack on Kyiv on May 29. This, according to the Russian media, was the
cause of Budanov being seriously injured.
An U.S. podcast host misrepresented a Mexican TV newscast by saying that a Javelin the United States sent to Ukraine ended in the hands of a Mexican cartel.
That's not what the Spanish-speaking anchor said.
Experts also say the supposed cartel member is carrying an AT4, not a Javelin.
A TikTok video claimed to show a cartel member in Mexico carrying a Javelin that the U.S. sent to Ukraine.
We found no evidence that a Mexican cartel obtained U.S. weapons destined for Ukraine. Experts told PolitiFact that the man in the video is carrying what appears to be an AT4 weapon, not a Javelin.
We rate this claim False.
A viral tweet described the video as "war propaganda in the style of Bollywood dance videos."